Wanderer of Time (doctor who)

Chapter 27: Countdown

As soon as Wanda arrived to her destination, she felt it to be even hotter than the desert. A thin layer of sweat almost instantly covered her body. She was glad she still had her hair up for it helped somewhat in keeping her cool. Just barely, however. The heat within the place she had arrived (a ship of some sorts by her guesses) was far more intense than what she had ever encountered before. She was just glad that her new Time Lord genetics had efficient ways of keeping her from overheating. Though, with the heat seeming to be rising increasingly, she doubted even her new body's genetics could possibly keep up in protecting her from the extreme temperature.

Wiping at her sweaty forehead, she glanced around to see a jumbled mess of machinery around her. Everything sort of steamed from the boiling temperature. Before her appeared to be a destroyed engine of some kind from what she could guess. She walked up, holding up a cable from the mess to stare at it curiously. What happened here?

"Blimey! Do you always leave things in such a mess?"

Wanda looked around the engine to see Ten standing there at the end of the room, having just walked in. He grinned brightly upon seeing her.

"What the hell have you done to the engines?!"

Wanda saw how Kath McDonnell, Captain of the S.S. Pentallian, along with her crew, stormed up to the chestnut girl. All were glaring with rage. Wanda stared wide eyed with fear. Knowing instantly they were on the ship about to crash into the sun, with only forty-two minutes to go.

"I didn't do anything. It was like this when I got here," Wanda said quickly, letting go of the cable in hand.

"Who the hell are you, and what have you done?" McDonnell demanded angrily. The Doctor and Martha both ran up, placing themselves in front of Wanda.

"No, wait," the Doctor spoke hurriedly.

"She's with us," Martha explained, trying to calm the ship's crew down.

"If she's with you, why wasn't she back in the vent chamber when you arrived?" asked Riley Vashtee, one of the male crew members.

"Well, she went out searching. Wandering around. She does that," the Doctor answered lightly, throwing an arm around Wanda, pulling her close to his side. "Besides, whoever destroyed your engines knew what they were doing. Wanda here doesn't know how to do that. Doesn't know much, really. Still a little young, naïve, and innocent. A little empty in the head." He smiled and tapped an annoyed Wanda's forehead as if to make a knocking sound.

"Rude," Wanda grumbled, elbowing him slightly.

"Right. Sorry," the Doctor apologized in a mutter, looking embarrassed by his rambling rudeness.

The crew seemed to accept this, going around checking the damage. Both the Doctor and Martha grinned at the Time Lady. She smiled back lightly. The Doctor blinked upon seeing the Stetson on her head.

"You're wearing a Stetson. Why are you wearing a Stetson?" he questioned her.

"And why is there a bullet hole in it?" Martha asked in bewilderment.

"Oh!" Wanda spoke in surprise, forgetting that she was still wearing the western hat. She took it off. "There was this Gunslinger. He shot it off as a warning."

"Not at you, I hope," Martha said in shock.

"No, no. I wasn't wearing it at the time," Wanda reassured her. She smiled at Martha, glad to be seeing the student doctor again, having only seen her once during the Shakespeare adventure. The Doctor took the Stetson out of Wanda's hands, flipping it around.

"Nice shot. Couldn't have done better myself. That is, if I was planning to shoot at something. Not that I would. Don't like guns really," he spoke lightly. He suddenly grinned largely, placing the hat on his head. He gave it a small tilt to Wanda. "So? What do you think?"